Completed tonight. One of the two cable I need (or at least I think I need) to connect a lap-top to the Canon printer arrived today, so when the other one turns up in a few days, and IF it all works, then we should be able to print, rather than photocopy the Magazine, which would mean a quantum leap in quality - wish me luck!
On a sadder note, we had to say farewell to one of our two Cavalier King Charles spaniels tonight - rest in peace, Tiger old boy.
M 133
Moderators: Ian Grace, Will Grace
Re: M 133
If you think my saga with the Semi-sports doors on the Our Cars thread was complicated, you don't know the trouble I'm having with my new Canon printer to print M 133 and the Yearbook!
Just before moving to Seattle, I picked up a Canon GP200S printer (big hulking office machine - weighs 186 pounds!). Now I come to try to hook it up to a PC so I can print to it, rather than just using it as a photocopier. Many of you noticed the poor quality of M 132 and that was why. If I can print it directly, then the photos should be far better, and since the Yearbook is really heavily loaded this time with superb period images, I'm not prepared to do that with photocopies.
It turns out that simply hooking up a PC and loading a driver ain't that simple. The printer has about ten sockets of various types on the back, and I think the 15 pin D Type socket is the one to connect to. The only cable I can find that goes 15 pin to USB is a game joystick cable which is just 8" long, so I now have Jayne's lap-top sitting on a bar stool behind the printer so the cable reaches! But then the socket on the printer is female and so is the socket on the joystick adaptor cable, so I have bought a gender changer adaptor and now at least I have a physical connection. But now I am into drivers, and Canon don't have the right one on their download site as the printer is so old, so ... watch this space for either success or more swearing! After numerous calls to Canon tech support and local biz centers, I'm getting close, but will probably need a tech support visit - at $150 an hour!
Oh, the joys of vintage motoring!
Just before moving to Seattle, I picked up a Canon GP200S printer (big hulking office machine - weighs 186 pounds!). Now I come to try to hook it up to a PC so I can print to it, rather than just using it as a photocopier. Many of you noticed the poor quality of M 132 and that was why. If I can print it directly, then the photos should be far better, and since the Yearbook is really heavily loaded this time with superb period images, I'm not prepared to do that with photocopies.
It turns out that simply hooking up a PC and loading a driver ain't that simple. The printer has about ten sockets of various types on the back, and I think the 15 pin D Type socket is the one to connect to. The only cable I can find that goes 15 pin to USB is a game joystick cable which is just 8" long, so I now have Jayne's lap-top sitting on a bar stool behind the printer so the cable reaches! But then the socket on the printer is female and so is the socket on the joystick adaptor cable, so I have bought a gender changer adaptor and now at least I have a physical connection. But now I am into drivers, and Canon don't have the right one on their download site as the printer is so old, so ... watch this space for either success or more swearing! After numerous calls to Canon tech support and local biz centers, I'm getting close, but will probably need a tech support visit - at $150 an hour!
Oh, the joys of vintage motoring!
Re: M 133
Progress!
M 133 one quarter printed, and all covers printed. I have given up trying to find a printer driver for the Canon GP200S, but I did find a photo setting for photocopying which is infinitely better than without, so quality will be quite good - and far better than M 132 which was rubbish!
Yearbook also finished! That is to say all 80 pages written and page numbered - tomorrow night is printing the 40 double-sided page masters for printing, then the actual printing once M 133 is through with the GP200. All colour covers are now also printed for the Yearbooks.
My goal is to get both M 133 and the Yearbooks printed, collated, stapled, enveloped, addressed, subs chasers inserted where appropriate and Rally entry forms inserted, all packed addressed and customs forms completed, and all posted by the end of next week. Then I will be able to devote 100% of my time to the Summer Rally.
Phew!
M 133 one quarter printed, and all covers printed. I have given up trying to find a printer driver for the Canon GP200S, but I did find a photo setting for photocopying which is infinitely better than without, so quality will be quite good - and far better than M 132 which was rubbish!
Yearbook also finished! That is to say all 80 pages written and page numbered - tomorrow night is printing the 40 double-sided page masters for printing, then the actual printing once M 133 is through with the GP200. All colour covers are now also printed for the Yearbooks.
My goal is to get both M 133 and the Yearbooks printed, collated, stapled, enveloped, addressed, subs chasers inserted where appropriate and Rally entry forms inserted, all packed addressed and customs forms completed, and all posted by the end of next week. Then I will be able to devote 100% of my time to the Summer Rally.
Phew!
Re: M 133
Just spent the last four hours stuggling with the bloody Canon GP200 photocopier trying to finish printing M 133! After printing 16 of the 20 pages over the last few nights (each page 220 copies double sided to double sided) it started putting horrible diagonal lines across the paper, so I ran the cleaning routines which helped as bit, but then it started paper jamming badly and now won't print a single sheet without jamming. I felt like kicking the damned machine around my basement, but two bloody great Martinis cooled me down. I am going to leave it until the morning, let it cool down, and try again. I called Canon a while back, and they put me on to a local company who will come and look at it, but the visit price is beyond exorbitant - even before they actually do anything or specify new parts, and the printer is so old, those parts may not be available anyway.
I've just about had it with printing the Magazine, and then the Yearbook is waiting to be printed after that!
Once again I find myself drawn back to the thought of distributing the Magazine electronically. Last week I converted the entire M 133 Magazine to .pdf files, FTP'd them to the members' area of the website and was all done and dusted in less than 15 MINUTES! Printing and producing the magazine literally takes weeks - particularly as I have to print the colour covers with my HP colour inkjet one page at a time, and there are 880 to feed in manually to produce 220 Magazines, and I usually get through 5 0r 6 colour ink cartridges at $50 a pop just for the covers! Then there is hand collating, stapling, enveloping, labeling, packing, posting in bulk to the UK, New Zealand and elsewhere and then then the additional and considerable cost of posting on from there. This all takes an inordinate amount of time, effort, money and grief - four times a year, which means the process is almost continuous.
On the other hand, the electronic copy of the Magazine is virtually instantly available, can include any number of pages, and can contain all images in original resolution and in full colour, and can be printed if need be.
So, unless the printing issue can be resolved satisfactorily, I am very tempted to go all electronic. I realise that some members are not internet connected and I know that having a magazine in your hand, that you can read on the loo or in bed, is far nicer that opening files on your PC, but the subs could be halved if it weren't for the printing.
Burning the Magazine onto a CD and posting it is also extremely fast, and cheap. I used to offer the Magazines in this format, bit only four members took up the offer.
It just seems insane to continue printing the Magazines this way, and taking up so much of my spare time and your subs to produce something that is clearly inferior to what can be FTP's and printed by members if they wish. I would really appreciate some serious feedback as to how you guys (who are probably the most PC-savvy members we have, remember) think, and any suggestions as to how we might proceed. Should we put out a very small magazine - like the LCES magazine, or just print a few copies for those who genuinely cannot get to a computer? Should everyone get their Magazine on a CD? The CD's were actually excellent, because they included all the original high-res graphics files used to generate the magazine, a snapshot of the Website, the latest members' list and chassis register and more - all for absolutely no cost and just a minute or to to add the files to the master burn directory.
Professional printing has been looked into at least three times, and with the help of Barry Rogers, who was in the trade. That only becomes economic for around 500 Magazines, and we are far short of that. Or should we set the 2010 subs to GBP 10 and distribute the magazine electrically via the website and perhaps also by CD? Or perhaps someone would like to sponsor the Register by funding a reasonably modern and hopefully more trouble-free machine? As you can probably tell, I'm struggling fore the best solution here! Over to you guys.
I've just about had it with printing the Magazine, and then the Yearbook is waiting to be printed after that!
Once again I find myself drawn back to the thought of distributing the Magazine electronically. Last week I converted the entire M 133 Magazine to .pdf files, FTP'd them to the members' area of the website and was all done and dusted in less than 15 MINUTES! Printing and producing the magazine literally takes weeks - particularly as I have to print the colour covers with my HP colour inkjet one page at a time, and there are 880 to feed in manually to produce 220 Magazines, and I usually get through 5 0r 6 colour ink cartridges at $50 a pop just for the covers! Then there is hand collating, stapling, enveloping, labeling, packing, posting in bulk to the UK, New Zealand and elsewhere and then then the additional and considerable cost of posting on from there. This all takes an inordinate amount of time, effort, money and grief - four times a year, which means the process is almost continuous.
On the other hand, the electronic copy of the Magazine is virtually instantly available, can include any number of pages, and can contain all images in original resolution and in full colour, and can be printed if need be.
So, unless the printing issue can be resolved satisfactorily, I am very tempted to go all electronic. I realise that some members are not internet connected and I know that having a magazine in your hand, that you can read on the loo or in bed, is far nicer that opening files on your PC, but the subs could be halved if it weren't for the printing.
Burning the Magazine onto a CD and posting it is also extremely fast, and cheap. I used to offer the Magazines in this format, bit only four members took up the offer.
It just seems insane to continue printing the Magazines this way, and taking up so much of my spare time and your subs to produce something that is clearly inferior to what can be FTP's and printed by members if they wish. I would really appreciate some serious feedback as to how you guys (who are probably the most PC-savvy members we have, remember) think, and any suggestions as to how we might proceed. Should we put out a very small magazine - like the LCES magazine, or just print a few copies for those who genuinely cannot get to a computer? Should everyone get their Magazine on a CD? The CD's were actually excellent, because they included all the original high-res graphics files used to generate the magazine, a snapshot of the Website, the latest members' list and chassis register and more - all for absolutely no cost and just a minute or to to add the files to the master burn directory.
Professional printing has been looked into at least three times, and with the help of Barry Rogers, who was in the trade. That only becomes economic for around 500 Magazines, and we are far short of that. Or should we set the 2010 subs to GBP 10 and distribute the magazine electrically via the website and perhaps also by CD? Or perhaps someone would like to sponsor the Register by funding a reasonably modern and hopefully more trouble-free machine? As you can probably tell, I'm struggling fore the best solution here! Over to you guys.
-
Tony Gamble
- Posts: 180
- Joined: Mon Nov 20, 2006 5:16 pm
- Location: Selby , North Yorkshire. UK
Re: M 133
Ian
Having read your heartrending report with considerable sympathy I would suggest this .........
Issue the electronic emailed version as you do now , post a CD version off to each member , and sling your Canon printer as far as you like to kingdom come.
We should all move with the times , and the two versions issued above must satisfy virtually everyone , if not they should be prepared to enter this century !
The time you put into preparing the quarterly magazine should not be more than doubled by unnecessary printing. The instant emailed version followed up by the CD is perfectly acceptable. The quality of the photos would be considerably superior to the printed version anyway.
Go ahead Ian , don't spend any more time with this printing lark. Life is too short.
Tony G
Having read your heartrending report with considerable sympathy I would suggest this .........
Issue the electronic emailed version as you do now , post a CD version off to each member , and sling your Canon printer as far as you like to kingdom come.
We should all move with the times , and the two versions issued above must satisfy virtually everyone , if not they should be prepared to enter this century !
The time you put into preparing the quarterly magazine should not be more than doubled by unnecessary printing. The instant emailed version followed up by the CD is perfectly acceptable. The quality of the photos would be considerably superior to the printed version anyway.
Go ahead Ian , don't spend any more time with this printing lark. Life is too short.
Tony G
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prharris25
- Posts: 108
- Joined: Sun Dec 02, 2007 7:02 pm
- Location: Liss, Hampshire.
Re: M 133
Ian,
The VMR is a small club and I think that your efforts in producing the hard copy magazine over all this time is little short of heroic.
I agree entirely with Tony.....time to move on.
It would indeed be excellent to have a lower subscription rate for those happy to receive on line news only.
I certainly could justify, as a non Minor owning fan, re-joining the Club properly. In retirement, I simply cannot belong to all the Clubs I would like to !1
All good wishes,
Paul.
The VMR is a small club and I think that your efforts in producing the hard copy magazine over all this time is little short of heroic.
I agree entirely with Tony.....time to move on.
It would indeed be excellent to have a lower subscription rate for those happy to receive on line news only.
I certainly could justify, as a non Minor owning fan, re-joining the Club properly. In retirement, I simply cannot belong to all the Clubs I would like to !1
All good wishes,
Paul.
Re: M 133
Ian, this does seem troublesome and if we have to go electronic then we have to, but the experience seems to be that there are many in the club who don't look at the forum or website despite having email (or go to events), then there are those without email. I have spoken to people in the club with computers who show little interest in, or don't know about, the forum. There is little left for them to stay in the club if there is no magazine-this also reduces the exposure for sponsors and adverts for sale and wanted and God knows our parts are hard enough to find although I'm not sure how effective the printed ads are? I was going to suggest a printer who could print the mag from your electronic efforts but this seems like it could be too expensive, could we not find a printer who's cheap!? If it were near me I could wrap and post for you and I'm sure there are others who could help with club running-membership etc. to lighten your load, other clubs have official posts to help in the running of the club. It would be a shame to lose the magazine as it really does make the subs worthwhile and is very professional.
Incidentally have you thought of applying to the DVLA to be recognized as the club historian? This would generate £10-£25 per reg.no. that is saved, would put the vmr on the dvla list of clubs for people looking to save their reg. no. and also save having to go through another Morris club, you seem to have thorough enough records on minors to do the job!
Incidentally have you thought of applying to the DVLA to be recognized as the club historian? This would generate £10-£25 per reg.no. that is saved, would put the vmr on the dvla list of clubs for people looking to save their reg. no. and also save having to go through another Morris club, you seem to have thorough enough records on minors to do the job!
if it's got wheels or chips - it'll cost you dear
Re: M 133
I take your point Toby, and this has been debated more than once in the past. The problem would be largely solved if I could find a decent printer at a realistic price. If the Magazine were distributed as a CD, members would only need a PC to read it, they wouldn't have to be internet savvy in any way. I worked with Barry and Also Bev Hicks several times to find a local print company, but the sums just didn't add up. The other complication is that about 50 Magazines ship to the antipodes, and about a dozen more get posted to the USA, Japan and other far-flung places directly by me from here in Seattle.
There are clear advantages for the members to having a CD copy - I can add all sorts of other good stuff to the CD at absolutely no cost - original high-res images, images that didn't get selected for the Magazine, snapshots of the chassis registers, members list, copies of the newsletters, and the other great feature is that it is fully searchable. All you have to do is save the mags into a directory and then you can search all of them at the same time for chassis numbers, registration numbers, parts of the car, people's names - anything.
Just ran some interesting stats:
Total number of members 235
Total delinquent on 2009 subs 40
Total number without (known) e-mail addresses 35
Total number of e-mail addresses for the Newsletter 203 (should be 200 from the above figures, but I think we have about 3 MR Minor SIG subscribers)
Honorary members 7
Forum subscribers 162
Of the 35 I don't have e-mail addresses for, I suspect that at least half of them do have e-mail addresses - I just don't have them.
So we probably have less than 20 members who don't have e-mail, and maybe 10 or 15 who don't have any form of PC access. Virtually everyone should have a CD drive if they have a PC. Of these 10 or 15, several are ancient honorary members - like Jim Legg, for example. I would be happy to print magazines in small quantity for those members who genuinely couldn't access a CD.
As for advertising, the only revenue raised by the Register for adverts is through the Yearbook - all other adverts are free. All parts adverts in the Magazine are simply extracted from the website prior to printing anyway, and in any case, this service is horribly under-used and most adverts are way out of date, because advertisers never let me know when they are no longer needed! Toby, do you still have those MG Y Types for sale?!
Other advantages are - the CDs don't get dog-eared, they can be used as beer mats, ...
Ian
There are clear advantages for the members to having a CD copy - I can add all sorts of other good stuff to the CD at absolutely no cost - original high-res images, images that didn't get selected for the Magazine, snapshots of the chassis registers, members list, copies of the newsletters, and the other great feature is that it is fully searchable. All you have to do is save the mags into a directory and then you can search all of them at the same time for chassis numbers, registration numbers, parts of the car, people's names - anything.
Just ran some interesting stats:
Total number of members 235
Total delinquent on 2009 subs 40
Total number without (known) e-mail addresses 35
Total number of e-mail addresses for the Newsletter 203 (should be 200 from the above figures, but I think we have about 3 MR Minor SIG subscribers)
Honorary members 7
Forum subscribers 162
Of the 35 I don't have e-mail addresses for, I suspect that at least half of them do have e-mail addresses - I just don't have them.
So we probably have less than 20 members who don't have e-mail, and maybe 10 or 15 who don't have any form of PC access. Virtually everyone should have a CD drive if they have a PC. Of these 10 or 15, several are ancient honorary members - like Jim Legg, for example. I would be happy to print magazines in small quantity for those members who genuinely couldn't access a CD.
As for advertising, the only revenue raised by the Register for adverts is through the Yearbook - all other adverts are free. All parts adverts in the Magazine are simply extracted from the website prior to printing anyway, and in any case, this service is horribly under-used and most adverts are way out of date, because advertisers never let me know when they are no longer needed! Toby, do you still have those MG Y Types for sale?!
Other advantages are - the CDs don't get dog-eared, they can be used as beer mats, ...
Ian
